Gamescom: Donkey Kong Country Returns...Again

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The E3 build of the Super NES revival hits the German games convention.

By Craig Harris

I played a bunch of Donkey Kong Country Returns but left the writing duties to someone else. Now that I've played a bunch more of the game at this year's Gamescom I'm ready to crack down on the impressions piece I wish I had time to write two months ago.

Let it be said that the version in Nintendo's booth at Germany's Gamecom was the same build Retro Studios put together for E3, so not a whole lot new was revealed in this hands-on, and if you're looking for brand new elements about the game you're probably best to move onto the rest of our Gamescom coverage.

The Donkey Kong Country Return demo does do a great job at balancing the variety of the areas to show off what you'll be doing in this upcoming sequel, showing off three full levels of platforming and one boss battle. The game plays homage to the Rare-developed Donkey Kong Country series, obviously – it's a strict side-scrolling affair with a lot of running, jumping and banana collecting. But Donkey Kong Country Returns is doing so much more than the Super NES original could only dream of doing. Retro Studios is designing this in a completely realtime 3D engine which allows the team to create dynamic effects like shifting cameras and the ability to get blasted off into the background then back into the foreground seamlessly.

There are also triggered events that happen, like background object -- giant stone pillars – that fall into Donkey Kong's path, and huge waves that'll flip floating platforms upwards to gain access to higher ledges or to just make running a tad more difficult.

Speaking of difficult, the game can get a little brutal in it's challenge, as made clear in the mine cart level in the Gamescom demo. These level designs are very similar to the cart levels in the classic Super NES games, and if you remember all the times you had to restart the challenge because of a mistimed jump then you'll know exactly what to expect in the Wii sequel. Lots of timing jumps almost perfectly – you'll be automatically zooming forward in a rail car and leaping over gaps in the track. Jump too early and you'll never land on the platform on the other side. Too late and you'll simply plunge to your death. Luckily – at least in the Gamescom/E3 build – extra lives are in abundance.

You can always bring a second player into the action – controller two will take control over Diddy Kong and work along side of player one. Diddy can glide over gaps and shoot his peanut gun, but almost like a nod to New Super Mario Bros. Wii, if things get too much for player two, he can climb on Donkey Kong's back and let him carry the load. Hopefully by the finished product, the two player co-op can be a jump-in-jump-out affair instead of forcing players to pick "two players" from the beginning of the level.

The game's bright, colorful, and runs just as fast and smooth as the old-school platformer. The realtime engine allows for some pretty awesome effects, but I will say that DK's realtime model doesn't look quite as nice as the rendered model of the Super NES game…and I'll have to recheck the game, but I think he looked more detailed in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat on the GameCube.

Nintendo just announced the release date for the game in the US: November 21st. Three more months to go before we get to play this Super NES revival from Retro Studios in all its glory.